Ever get a letter from a rental car company saying you damaged the car?

[unkadug]

Lol, I'm not suing anyone.

But I'm sure someone will, some day.

I'm disappointed that you are going to let them get away with this. It takes SOMEONE to stand up to these corporate terrorists.

 

[JenniferS]

Like me? But, this isn't his specialty and he's at a point in his career where he wouldn't be interested anyway...

Huh - I did not know that your dad was a lawyer. What kind of law did/does he practise, and can I get a friends and family discount?
I need a new will. My parents are still listed as my sons' guardians. Of course, another 6 months and it won't matter, as the youngest will have turned 18.

 

[englanddg]

Huh - I did not know that your dad was a lawyer. What kind of law did/does he practise, and can I get a friends and family discount?
I need a new will. My parents are still listed as my sons' guardians. Of course, another 6 months and it won't matter, as the youngest will have turned 18.

He was a federal attorney for most of his career. Retired JAG. He then went on to environmental law (not activism work, rather, compliance work) for a large government contractor. His private practice he focuses on contract law.

 

[luv]

I'm disappointed that you are going to let them get away with this. It takes SOMEONE to stand up to these corporate terrorists.

I'm no Erin Brockovich.

I just will not pay BS stuff. That's wakkie nunu!

 

[lazyboy97o]

Lol!

I believe a class action suit will be brought by someone at some point. This is criminal. What if I was some young, single mom, who spent her last few hundred dollars attending an out-of-town funeral? This kind of thing could turn into a nightmare for someone who ended up having to pay for damages they didn't cause and didn't exist while they had the car.

They really shouldn't be able to get away with this.

I'm sorry, but I do not see how this could turn into a nightmare. It seems you made this far more complicated by getting the insurance company and a lawyer involved. Even if they gave you a receipt for the wrong car, that should support your argument that their paperwork is not in proper order and they cannot rely on what they have to claim that you had the car when it was damaged.

 

[flynnibus]

honestly all this sounds like a mix up of IDs/etc. Like they could have crossed records afterwards... but the person recieving your car when you dropped it off would match up the info from the scan with the car you actually dropped off (model, color, etc).

Just a phone call telling them 'you got your info crossed' would probably put the whole thing to bed.

Some less scrupulous rental brands try to put the screws to people on damage over minor things.. but not Avis.

 

[luv]

I'm sorry, but I do not see how this could turn into a nightmare. It seems you made this far more complicated by getting the insurance company and a lawyer involved. Even if they gave you a receipt for the wrong car, that should support your argument that their paperwork is not in proper order and they cannot rely on what they have to claim that you had the car when it was damaged.

My argument isn't that their paperwork is out of order. My "argument", if you want to call it that, is that the car was not damaged while I had it. Period.

A person who has no money and gets slammed with bogus charges might call it a nightmare. Not everyone can shrug their shoulders over a few hundred or thousand dollars. For some people, that's a lot of money, you know? Having to pay money you don't have is a nightmare for some people.

Fighting with big corporations on legal things isn't something I do every day, much less have been doing for years and years. I know nothing about it. I don't even know what I don't know. So, I contacted someone who does do that every day and who knew exactly what to do immediately.

What I should've done was just call the lawyer first and not even think about it, which I will do in the future.

I'm sorry if the posts bugged you.

 

[luv]

honestly all this sounds like a mix up of IDs/etc. Like they could have crossed records afterwards... but the person recieving your car when you dropped it off would match up the info from the scan with the car you actually dropped off (model, color, etc).

Just a phone call telling them 'you got your info crossed' would probably put the whole thing to bed.

Some less scrupulous rental brands try to put the screws to people on damage over minor things.. but not Avis.

If you were me and you had the choice of taking advice from someone here (say, me) or taking the advice of someone who gets paid millions of dollars a year to fight with big corporations, whose advice would you take?

 

[luv]

I'm honestly sorry I ever started this thread and won't start ridiculous threads with purpose (as opposed to simply ridiculous threads, lol) again.

 

[JenniferS]

I'm honestly sorry I ever started this thread and won't start ridiculous threads with purpose (as opposed to simply ridiculous threads, lol) again.

No. Don't be sorry.
This is the chit chat section. Anything goes.

Besides, I am particularly interested in how this turns out. Please PM me, if you don't want to share with all.

 

[luv]

No. Don't be sorry.
This is the chit chat section. Anything goes.

Besides, I am particularly interested in how this turns out. Please PM me, if you don't want to share with all.

As I understand it, we are done. Letters are in the mail, and I just sit back and wait to see if they sue me, which he is confident they won't want to do. If they do, it won't go past Discovery.

But really, it's over.

 

[flynnibus]

If you were me and you had the choice of taking advice from someone here (say, me) or taking the advice of someone who gets paid millions of dollars a year to fight with big corporations, whose advice would you take?

You never made it clear if you talked to the lawyer or not... you only said 'I got a lecture' and referenced 'he' but never said who lectured you or who 'he' was.

And if you ask a lawyer a question.. you're going to get a lawyer answer Remember when we complain about Disney going all over-active with their safety and other PC things in the parks? That's because they consulted lawyers

 

[Goofyernmost]

I'm honestly sorry I ever started this thread and won't start ridiculous threads with purpose (as opposed to simply ridiculous threads, lol) again.

You're letting your imagination get away from you again. I have read through all these threads and it hasn't seemed to me that anyone has put you down or done anymore then make suggestions that they thought might be helpful. No name calling has happened and no one but yourself has said that you did anything wrong or even different then what any of our first reactions would be to a similar situation. No one, millionaire or otherwise wants to be accused of something that they didn't do. And contrary to what some have said here, telling them straight out that you didn't do it will not and, if you think about it, cannot be used against you.

You posted for a reason and that was to see if anyone had any thoughts about this particular thing. Many did, many agreed with you , many did not. No one here claimed to be an absolute expert in this type of problem. Try to not be quite so sensitive because you are reading things into conversations that aren't being said.

 

[luv]

You never made it clear if you talked to the lawyer or not... you only said 'I got a lecture' and referenced 'he' but never said who lectured you or who 'he' was.

And if you ask a lawyer a question.. you're going to get a lawyer answer Remember when we complain about Disney going all over-active with their safety and other PC things in the parks? That's because they consulted lawyers

I know! I have my issues with the legal system, like we all do. I was so glad when I didn't have to go to Jury Duty because I don't want the responsibility of holding someone's future in my hands. I'd never want to send someone to jail! But I'd never want to let some vile, violent person go free to hurt other innocents. And what if you don't know? What do you do then? SO glad when the message said, "All jurors are excused", lol.

I have respect for both sides of the law and people who work toward those ends. But it's still kinda slimy...and kind of very ridiculous (!) sometimes.

It occurs to me, too, that I could've damaged the car and we'd be taking the same course of action and I'd get away with it. That doesn't sit well with me, either, that someone could count on this Discovery stuff to get away with being a big, fat loser.

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. Yes, the lawyer wrote the letter...but I printed it and signed it. It was pretty short, which surprised me. Basically all it said was, "I got your letter <with a bunch of reference numbers>. I didn't damage your car. You can't wait a month and then say it was damaged. I'm not filling out your forms. If you have an audit to do, I will not be assisting you with your audit." Seriously, that's it.

He said they might sue me, but he really doubts it and not to worry. He kind f chuckled when he said, "Then we'll start Discovery."

The whole thing is really over.

 

[lazyboy97o]

My argument isn't that their paperwork is out of order. My "argument", if you want to call it that, is that the car was not damaged while I had it. Period.

A person who has no money and gets slammed with bogus charges might call it a nightmare. Not everyone can shrug their shoulders over a few hundred or thousand dollars. For some people, that's a lot of money, you know? Having to pay money you don't have is a nightmare for some people.

Fighting with big corporations on legal things isn't something I do every day, much less have been doing for years and years. I know nothing about it. I don't even know what I don't know. So, I contacted someone who does do that every day and who knew exactly what to do immediately.

What I should've done was just call the lawyer first and not even think about it, which I will do in the future.

I'm sorry if the posts bugged you.

The proof of your argument is the paperwork. If they gave you the receipt for the wrong vehicle, it still helps your argument because it shows their paperwork is faulty. It gives your word more weight than theirs.

If a credit card is charged in error the credit cards have a mechanism for dealing with such situations, disputes. Unless you forgot to mention it, charges on your card have yet to occur. You're idea of just canceling the card could be worse for somebody with tight finances as closing lines of credit can hurt a person's credit rating. Nor is hiring a lawyer a cheap proposition.

Based on what you have said, Avis hardly got near the level of a serious fight and you do not know how seriously they would have pursued the matter. You do not know if this could have been handled by just calling Avis and saying they're wrong.

 

[luv]

You're letting your imagination get away from you again. I have read through all these threads and it hasn't seemed to me that anyone has put you down or done anymore then make suggestions that they thought might be helpful. No name calling has happened and no one but yourself has said that you did anything wrong or even different then what any of our first reactions would be to a similar situation. No one, millionaire or otherwise wants to be accused of something that they didn't do. And contrary to what some have said here, telling them straight out that you didn't do it will not and, if you think about it, cannot be used against you.

You posted for a reason and that was to see if anyone had any thoughts about this particular thing. Many did, many agreed with you , many did not. No one here claimed to be an absolute expert in this type of problem. Try to not be quite so sensitive because you are reading things into conversations that aren't being said.

I didn't say any of that. I'd appreciate it if you'd address what I say and not what you made up in your head as the thing I must have been thinking.

 

[luv]

The proof of your argument is the paperwork. If they gave you the receipt for the wrong vehicle, it still helps your argument because it shows their paperwork is faulty. It gives your word more weight than theirs.

If a credit card is charged in error the credit cards have a mechanism for dealing with such situations, disputes. Unless you forgot to mention it, charges on your card have yet to occur. You're idea of just canceling the card could be worse for somebody with tight finances as closing lines of credit can hurt a person's credit rating. Nor is hiring a lawyer a cheap proposition.

Based on what you have said, Avis hardly got near the level of a serious fight and you do not know how seriously they would have pursued the matter. You do not know if this could have been handled by just calling Avis and saying they're wrong.

Again, I'm not arguing or attempting to prove anything.

I did call them. They said the letter didn't mean what it said but was "just an audit of that location" and that they needed my help with that, so I had to (that's their words, lol, "you have to") fill out their form and return it.

I already said what the lawyer said about that. It's their attempt to gather information that could later be used against me in court, don't fill it out, don't send it back. If they have an audit to do, they can do it themselves.

I'm kind of way done with this. It's over. I'd like to just drop the whole thing, if that's okay.

 

[luv]

Now I do have to bail. Not to be rude. A friend of mine with skin cancer needs to discuss her newest medical stuff.

Please, please, let this die. (The thread, not the friend.)

 

[JenniferS]

Now I do have to bail. Not to be rude. A friend of mine with skin cancer needs to discuss her newest medical stuff.

Please, please, let this die. (The thread, not the friend.)

I actually owe you a debt of gratitude. Because of your situation, I started to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, so I decided to go over my three most recent MasterCard bills with a fine toothed comb. I am guilty of just giving them a cursory glance usually.

Anyway, happy day - no unexpected charges from the car rental company, but I did discover that Sirius radio charged me a $211 renewal fee for a portable system we don't even use any more. Hubby will call them tomorrow and cancel and get the charge reversed.

So, the whole thread was not for naught!

 

[MinnieM123]

Luv, I'm glad you posted your inquiry, and hope that you continue to feel comfortable sharing any general discussion topic in the Chit Chat section in the future.

Although I have rarely rented a car, I have always paid the rental company's insurance, just to cover anything that might happen to the car. For me, it was just peace of mind to pay extra.

May I kindly share my own thoughts on how various people responded: I sincerely believe that all of them cared about you, and were offering their best suggestions, based upon their own personal knowledge. Different people have different approaches to an issue, and not everyone responds, or processes information, in the same manner. Some people are more matter-of-fact. Other people also have valid opinions, but may be coming more from an angle of worrying about how to deal with a big company, that has just made an incorrect accusation.

I learned a lot about car rental issues by reading this thread. Thank you all.